Following a court appearance in Beaver, Utah on August 6, 2018, DxE activists returned to the Smithfield Foods-owned Circle Four Farms farm where they rescued a dying piglet (they named Lily) in 2017 and demanded that farm staff allow them to inspect and audit the farm to determine if conditions and treatment of the pigs has improved there. The activists were met by police and denied entry. No one was arrested. The Utah Attorney General’s Office filed charges against the five activists in May of this year. The activists are being charged with multiple felonies and face up to 60 years in prison. The defendants are Wayne Hansen Hsiung, 37, of Berkeley; Paul Picklesimer, 40, of Berkeley; Samer Thomas Masterson, 24, of San Francisco; Andrew George Sharo, 24, of Berkeley; and Jonathan Frohnmayer, 33, of Santa Clara. The article features the DxE video, “And Lily Came Back to Life.” Similar articles were published at the KUTV and Good 4 Utah websites. The latter site features a news video which includes interviews with activists and open rescue footage.

On Saturday, August 11, 2018 an anti-speciesism march will take place in Barcelona, Spain to promote the idea that all animals deserve compassion. Barcelona Animal Save, Anonymous for the Voiceless, Direct Action Everywhere and Events4Animals want to raise awareness that all non-human animals deserve compassion regardless of their species.

This article features an interview with animal rights activist Jacy Reese. Resse, along with former DxE organizer Kelly Witwicki, co-founded the Sentience Institute, whose mission includes working towards “a society in which the interests of all sentient beings are fully considered, regardless of their sex, race, species, substrate, location, or any other characteristic apart from their sentience.” The Feedstuffs article quotes from the DxE Wikipedia page which, Describes DxE as “an international grassroots network of animal rights activists founded in 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area. DxE activists started with disruptive protests but now also use non-violent direct action tactics to further their cause, such as open rescue of animals from farms and other facilities and community building. Their intent is to build a movement that can eventually shift culture and change social and political institutions. DxE activists work for total animal liberation and the creation of a law requiring species equality.”

“Lab-grown meat—for humans or pets—remains controversial among vegans. Bethencourt [founder of Wild Earth, a company developing lab-grown pet food] has staked out what he says is a pragmatic stance: It’ll reduce the number of animals who have to die for food. For other vegans though, it comes with a more fundamental problem. Matt Johnson, an organizer for the animal-rights group Direct Action Everywhere (whose members made headlines last year by wrapping themselves in fake blood and plastic to protest a Berkeley butcher shop), put it this way: ‘It still reinforces this notion that animals exist as commodities, that they exist as an object for us to consume.’ ”

OTHER ANIMAL RIGHTS NEWS

“The End of Meat,” a new documentary about the vision of a post-meat world, will be released at the end of August 2018. The film features stories of rescued animals from the food industry and explores the brave new world of vegan commerce. One of the experts interviewed is Anita Krajnc, friend of DxE and founder of Toronto Pig Save. In the trailer we think we spotted Maryam Caspian and Jake Hobbs.

French animal rights activists, who call themselves Le Laboratoire, set fire to a central France zoo, calling it a prison for animals. A statement from the group read, “The wall, bars and electrified fences are a long way from the animals’ natural environment.” They demanded, “the destruction of all prisons whatever the shape of their bars.” The fire was put out before anyone was hurt by it.

Lara Trump, who is married to Donald Trump’s son Eric, is the joining the fight to pass an amendment to the Florida Constitution to ban dog racing. Along with Florida Secretary of State Pam Bondi, Lara Trump was a special guest at a $2,500 a plate fundraiser to support “Promote Dogs-Yes on 13” held this past Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that when it comes to food-borne illness, eating chicken is the worst. The government agency analyzed 5,760 outbreaks from 2009 to 2015 which made 100,939 people sick. Of those, 5,699 were hospitalized; 145 died. The food categories that could be identified as singly responsible for the most outbreak-associated illnesses were chicken/eggs (3,114 illnesses) and pork (2,670). The chicken or eggs that caused illnesses were contaminated with Salmonella.